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v.a.
Stuart
Praise for V.A. Stuart
V
“[Hazard] is a worthy successor to the Horatio Hornblower
i
series, and make no bones about it.”
c
—Publishers Weekly
t
“Stuart’s background history is impeccable.”
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—Yorkshire Evening Press
S r
pring 1855, Ty
the height of the Crimean War, and h
e
the siege of the Russian city of Sebastopol continues. P
ha
In a desperate attempt to cut the Russians’ supply line at the il
l
Sea of Azoff, the Allies commit 15,000 troops, five batteries of ipt
H
artillery, and virtually every ship of their Black Sea fleets. a
z
a
Commander Phillip Hazard and HMS Huntress undertake the rS
d
crucial mission of marking a new channel for the Allies’ N
oe
attack under the formidable shore batteries guarding the ve
lb
Straight of Yenikale. Forced to make some hard decisions, s
,
Na
Hazard faces court martial and, later, the brutality of the o
.6
final assault on Sebastopol. s
Victory at Sebastopol explores the responsibility of com- t
mand and the choices of war as Hazard faces grueling tests
o
of his leadership and personal integrity. Seamlessly inter-
p
weaving historical fact with fiction, Stuart brings to life the
o
battle for Sebastopol—and the terrible cost to those who
fought it. l
the Phillip Hazard Novels, No.6 ISBN 1-59013-061-8
McBOOKS PRESS 51395
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PRESS
VICTORY AT SEBASTOPOL
Historical Fiction by V.A. Stuart
Published by McBooks Press
THE ALEXANDER SHERIDAN ADVENTURES
Victors and Lords
The Sepoy Mutiny
Massacre at Cawnpore
The Cannons of Lucknow
The Heroic Garrison
THE PHILLIP HAZARD NOVELS
The Valiant Sailors
The Brave Captains
Hazard’s Command
Hazard of Huntress
Hazard in Circassia
Victory at Sebastopol
For a complete list of nautical and military fiction
published by McBooks Press, please see pages 217–221.
the Phillip Hazard Novels, No.6
VICTORY
AT
SEBASTOPOL
by
V. A. STUART
MCBOOKS PRESS, INC.
ITHACA, NEW YORK
Published by McBooks Press 2004
Copyright © 1973 by V.A. Stuart
First published in the United Kingdom by
Robert Hale and Co. Ltd., London
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
any portion thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.
Requests for such permissions should be addressed to
McBooks Press, Inc.,
IDBooth Building, 520 North Meadow St., Ithaca, NY 14850.
Cover: British Naval Boat Taking Soundings Under the Batteries of
Cronstadt, from a drawing by J. W. Carmichael, engraved by
E. Brandard. Courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stuart, V. A.
Victory at Sebastopol / by V.A. Stuart.
p. cm. — (The Phillip Hazard novels ; #6)
ISBN 1-59013-061-8 (trade pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Hazard, Phillip Horatio (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Great
Britain—History, Naval—19th century—Fiction. 3. Great Britain.
Royal Navy—Officers—Fiction. 4. Crimean War, 1853-1856—Fiction.
5. British—Ukraine—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6063.A38V545 2004
823’.92—dc22
2004009176
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9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
AUTHOR’S NOTE
W
ith the exception of the Officers and Seamen of HMS
Huntress and of Colonel Gorak and his daughter, all
the characters in this novel really existed and their actions are
a matter of historical fact. Where they have been credited with
remarks or conversations—as, for example, with the fictitious
characters—which are not actually their own words, care has
been taken to make sure that these are, as far as possible, in
keeping with their known sentiments.
Grateful thanks to Mr Ian Scott of Boston Spa, Yorkshire
for technical advice on the Russian “infernal machine” and
other explosives mentioned in the text.
My main sources of reference were The Russian War,
1855, edited by Captain A.C. Dewar; History of the War Against
Russia, E.H. Nolan, 1857; Illustrated London News, 1854–55;
The Crimean War, Philip Warner, 1972; Surgeon in the Crimea,
George Lawson, edited by Victor Bonham Carter, 1968.
FOR MY DAUGHTER VALERIE STUART
with much love
THE WAR IN THE CRIMEA
N
otes on the main events from September, 1854–
May, 1855. The siege of the Russian naval base of
Sebastopol, on the Crimean Coast of the Black Sea, followed
the landing, on 14th September, 1854, of the Allied Expedi-
tionary Forces of Great Britain, France, and Turkey at the Old
Fort, Kalamita Bay, some thirty miles to the north of their
objective.
Under the command of General Lord Raglan, a veteran of
Waterloo, the British force consisted of 26,800 men. Together
with sixty guns and about two thousand horses, they embarked
at Varna, on the Bulgarian coast, and crossed to the Crimea in
a fleet of fifty-five sailing transports towed by steamers, and
escorted by ships of the Royal Navy, whose second-in-com-
mand, Rear-Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons, was responsible for
the whole complex operation of transport and landing.
The French, commanded by Marshal St Arnaud, landed
twenty-eight thousand men and sixty-eight guns and the Turks,
who were heavily engaged in fighting the common enemy on
other European and Asian fronts, contributed a smaller force
of seven thousand. Although badly affected by an outbreak of
cholera, the Allied Armies defeated a strongly positioned
Russian army, with one hundred twenty guns, on the Heights
above the Alma River on 20th September, the British sustain-
ing over two thousand casualties and the French nine hundred.
